Shortly after winning his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in "Iris" (2001), Jim Broadbent was interviewed by Joan Rivers, who apparently didn't even know what nationality he was. On live TV, Rivers said, "Here we have Jim Broadbent, all the way from Australia. You're Australian, aren't you?" But there were to be no tantrums from the star - the mild-mannered actor replied, "No, I'm British."
How British is he? So British that...
"I was offered an OBE a couple of years ago, but I said, 'no', and turned it down. I'm not that comfortable with actors receiving honors, partly because I think they ought to go to those who really help others. Besides, I like the idea of actors not being part of the Establishment. We're vagabonds and rogues, and we're not a part of the authorities and Establishment, really. If you mix the two together, things get blurry."
"I didn't think I deserved it, really. And also my father died when I was 22 and he was quite an anarchic spirit, and he would have been proud of me to have turned it down. You know how it is, the usual line: 'Oh, I accepted it for my parents.' Whereas I turned it down for my parents."
In "Iris," Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent portray author Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley during the later stages of their marriage, while Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville appear as the couple in their younger years. This is the second movie to have two actresses nominated for an Academy Award for playing the same role in the same movie. The first was "Titanic" (1997). In both movies, Winslet played the younger version in the dual-nominee role.
"I always think you should be totally frivolous as much as you can, and then take the work seriously when it has to be taken seriously. As long as you can keep that balance going, it's good fun. If it's only frivolous it's not fun - it would drive me potty. On 'Iris,' I'd never worked with Judi Dench before, but it was wonderful to realize that we worked in exactly the same way. Foolish for most of the time, then focusing on the work, clicking into it very quickly and naturally. There were a lot of laughs. Otherwise it could have been torture. Two months of being grueled."
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